The problem of garbage collection faced by the Urban and Home Cleaning Authority (AAUD), since Monday has been joined by a work stoppage by the well-known “little ants.”
This group of workers walked on Monday from the Curundú area to the National Assembly, in Plaza 5 de Mayo, and then to the Presidency of the Republic to request work teams and compliance with a salary adjustment.
When they arrived at the Presidency, a commission attended to them and they delivered a list of demands, but when they did not receive answers, they decided to continue with the forceful measure this Tuesday.
Flora Chandier, spokeswoman for the group, stated on Radio Panama that among the agreements reached in the previous strike, authorities of the entity and leaders of the workers signed an agreement in which they promised to pay an increase of $250.
“They gave us $100 and the other $150 was on March 15 and the raise didn’t come, we don’t have brooms, we don’t have a dustpan, we don’t have dump trucks, we don’t have anything; the dump trucks he has (director of the AAUD) are rented from his brother of him. He is a liar, that he respects us”, commented.
Meanwhile, the Director of Communications of the AAUD, Javier Ortega, explained that in that agreement of the last strike, the workers’ leaders themselves asked for a $250 increase and the final negotiation of $150 was reached. “$100 that was given less than a year ago and the $50 that will be given another month, was never $250, that is, the leadership is lying to them or someone is lying to them that is not the administration,” he said.
Ortega also denied that the dump trucks that are currently being used to collect garbage belong to the brother of the entity’s administrator, Pedro Castillo. “This is easy to research and demonstrate, don’t be making things up,” he said.
Regarding the issue of the uniforms and implements of the so-called “antists”, he pointed out that less than a year ago they were given completely new boots and uniforms.
Chandier responded to Ortega, indicating that his boots, when they were delivered to him, lasted a few days and “I was left with the sole on the floor.”
Recently, in the Budget Commission of the National Assembly, Castillo was approved a transfer of funds for the sum of $937,332 to manage the overdue payments to the collection truck contractors.
